TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Myanmar: Enough is enough
The military’s accusations of rampant cheating in the Nov. 8, 2020, election is very difficult to accept due to a lack of concrete evidence.
Change Size
T
he danger of a military coup in Myanmar is still very real even though the military toned down its threat to seize power from a democratically elected civilian government on Saturday.
International news agencies quoted the military as blaming the media and civil society organizations for misunderstanding its statement. It could be just a deceiving tactic, knowing its decades-long antidemocratic reputation.
In fact, the military junta once ruled Myanmar with an iron fist for 50 years; therefore, it will be diplomatically embarrassing if Indonesia and the 10-member ASEAN play down the danger and assume everything is OK in Myanmar. The United Nations and Western countries have reprimanded Myanmar’s generals of the consequences of any coup.
Fears of a coup was provoked by the statement of Armed Forces Commander Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who said on Wednesday that the Constitution could be “revoked” if the military’s fraud complaints were not addressed satisfactorily.
The military’s accusations of rampant cheating in the Nov. 8, 2020, election is very difficult to accept due to a lack of concrete evidence. Unsurprisingly, Myanmar’s Election Commission rejected the military’s allegations.
The election saw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy Party (NLD) win 315 of the 440 seats in the Lower House and 161 of the 224 seats in the Upper House. NLD won 83.2 percent of the vote, which apparently shocked the military because its-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) won just 6.9 percent of the vote to get merely 33 seats. The military has guaranteed 25 percent of the Parliament, according to the Constitution.
Led by the UN, the international community has been united in condemning the years-long atrocities against millions of minority Rohingya Muslims. In this regard, Indonesia as the largest ASEAN member has been widely criticized for being too lenient on Myanmar.
The brutal treatment against minority groups, not just the Rohingya, has been going on for decades in Myanmar. Since 2011, the military has retreated from the political front and let the civilians play a bigger role in the government, although the military remains powerful.
Unfortunately, the civilian government of the predominantly Buddhist nation tends to support the oppression of minorities for the “sake” of the majority.
So far, Suu Kyi, once the icon of democracy, has refrained from responding to the military’s coup threat. She knows that she cannot do much about it, partly because she has been too tolerant of the Army generals.
To spare Myanmar from a democratic setback, we call on ASEAN to display a clear stance on Myanmar. ASEAN should stop making excuses as it did when responding to the plight of the Rohingya. The regional grouping has so far done a little to end the crimes against the minority group.
Myanmar would pay unbearable costs if the military, in a bid to satisfy its hunger for power, topples a democratically elected government for whatever reason. The military should remember Isolation and economic sanctions the country endured in the past.
Enough should be enough, generals.
